[/media-credit] First-graders from Kilmer Elementary School in Monument, Colo., participate in a Wonders of the Universe class at the Space Foundation’s Northrop Grumman Science Center, featuring Science On a Sphere®, in Colorado Springs, Colo.

SOS is a free-hanging, carbon-reinforced, plastic ball that is six feet in diameter. The giant ball was developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Boulder.

These globes are displayed around the world in science museums, zoos, aquariums, and visitors centers.

Janet Stevens, vice president of communications for Space Foundation says that the Science Center will function as both a museum and classroom instrument.

“The real purpose of this is to improve proficiency in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education,” Stevens said.
The Space Foundation staff recently completed tests of their curriculum on about 350 students from ten local schools. They will now tweak the curriculum and introduce the formalized program in a few weeks.

“It’s more than just a field trip. It will involve lectures and hands-on experiments or activities,” Stevens said. “So they’ll actually be in a classroom setting and the instructors we have here are teachers with master’s degrees. It is serious education.”

The SOS offers access to three types of datasets: images, real-time, and overlays. The real-time datasets can capture Earth’s weather within three hours after it occurs, and the overlaid datasets can display airplane traffic around the globe with a time stamp.

Stevens says that one of the most popular datasets is the ability to view Facebook connections around the globe.

Space Foundation — a global advocacy group for exploration of space — works closely with the corporate aerospace industry and has several corporate partnerships.

David joined The Denver Post in 1999, his second go-round in the Mile High City. Since then he’s covered a variety of topics – from human services to consumer affairs – most always with an investigative bent. Currently he does investigations and banking.